The website has been dormant for a while, so rather than a Pic of the Week, here are a few shots from recent rides to entice you out during these precious weeks (days!) before spring has fully sprung. First, a picnic spot on the Ayot Greenway, with my first bluebells of the season (19th April).
This was on a run from Bushey to Stevenage. The Ayot Greenway, especially on this section from Wheathampstead to Ayot Green, is a delight. It runs on the trackbed of an old branchline from the Great Northern mainline at Welwyn to Luton and Dunstable. In the 1840-50’s Luton was the largest town in Southern England without a rail connection, but in the next decade (1863) the Midland Railway extended their network with a mainline connection via Bedford and Luton to St Pancras. The C25, Sustrans, and your cycling pleasure, are the benefactors of this duplication. It and the other redundant railways that make up Hertfordshire Lost Rails provide most of Arcs 11, 12 and Spinoff 11 with off-road cycling.